implementing a cad system

[Dutcher]

Hi,

I used to work at a medium sized shipyard for the past 8 years in the weekends and hollydays because i was studying.
They build new ships, yachts and aluminium console/speed boats.
Recently i got my bachelor degree in engineering and a full job at the yard.

The engineering and shipdesign is currently beeing outsourced but they want to change that.
My task is to do the engineering and design in the near future and implement a cad system.

I am used to work with autocad and solidworks but i don't think they are a good choice for hull designing.

The systems we had in mind:

Shipconstructor, Mastership or fastship.

I wondered if anyone could tell me which one of these (or other programs) could be a good investment in our situation.
Suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

Michel

[CGN]

Mastership = shipconstructor??, looks like it, I will look into shipconstructor it has some extra modules for piping so if the goal of the shipyard is to do all in-house then SC is a good option, fastship is only to design or bring maybe a hull shape into mastership or shipconstructor. but I can recommend maxsurf instead, this is for the plates, hull, deckhouse plating, etc.., but for the mechanical parts SW is a way to go.

Also you should have a look at software like Seasolutions, for now I will say:

SC, Maxsurf and the piping module for SC.

cheers

[Raggi_Thor]

I used shipconstructor (from Albacore / DS&T) a few years ago. It's a great system if you like AutoCAD and if you have a hull modeller also. You need Fastship or simmilar to make the hull before you start working on the structure in Shipconstructor.

[yipster]

"fastship is only to design" could be, i'm not a pro, its expensive, needs more than the basic program etc -but- i gave it a try on the mets and was almost flying away with it

[Raggi_Thor]

DS&T, the european distributor of ShipConstructor uses FastShip, so it can't be that bad.

http://www.ds-t.com/general-cd/accueil/home.html

[CGN]

Fastship is used with shipconstructor only to fair hulls and export this ones into shipconstructor is very good but IMO very pricey for what it does , i will go with Maxsurf, again fastship is good but is no more than hull fairing software.

[Raggi_Thor]

What about even cheaper hull design programs like Prolines and Navaldesigner? Are these only for smaller boats?

[CDBarry]

Rhino works as a first cut design program, as does Baseline (though it's old). However, you can use SC from scratch, too.

Note, though, that I have been writing papers with ARL folks for some time on SC, so I might be biased.

[Dutcher]

i'm pleased to see all the reply's!

From what i can make up from your posts SC is a good program for designing a ship all the way too the end including the design of the hull shape?

Is it right to say when you have SC you don't need an other program? (with exception of solidworks or something for engineering)

[CGN]

No, you still need software for stability, resistance and seakeeping, GHS, NavCad the last one I guess you can have a look at the software from marintek:

http://www.sintef.no/content/page1____1142.aspx

All you have with SC is software to build your vessel parts, steel, etc..., yes you can elaborate a hull shape in SC.

other alternative is GHS, hullspeed and seakeeper

[Raggi_Thor]

Funny that you mention MARINTEK :-)
The windows version of their design program, ShipShape, has been "overdue" and in "btea testing" as far as I can remember. Now I read on www.lodic.no that it's in "alpha testing"...
ShipShape can export to "HXF", HUll interXhange Format, a kind of subset of DXF. I once wrote a lisp routine "HxfIn" to import hxf to AutoCAD.

[CDBarry]

Look at http://www.proteusengineering.com for a pretty complete list of what is available.

[Andrew Mason]

ShipConstructor is for detailed structural design and construction of the vessel.

Fastship, like Maxsurf, is a hull design program. There is virtually no overlap between the functions of Fastship and ShipConstructor.

[FSIII]

Ever had a look at think3 solutions? (www.think3.com).
Their 3D CAD software is used by leading firms as Ferretti, Wally, Rodriquez, Azimut-Benetti etc.
It is priced similar to SolidWorks but has a lot more powerful surface features, better assembly handling and specific Yachtbuilding features.
MasterShip is a suite of add-ons to Autocad mainly used in Holland but it is losing traction in the field because of the 2D Autocad kernel.

[ABoatGuy]

My two cents:

There is a lot of good software around as other members have pointed out.

The most important thing to remember is to make sure whatever you buy will talk to each other simply and without translation problems. For instance if you are going to use GHS or AutoHydro for hydrostatics, your hull modeling program needs to write GF files and not all do. Etc. Etc.

Try before you buy. Some interfaces are much friendlier then others and it really comes down to personal preference.

Make sure whatever package you go for is well supported and will do the biggest job you anticipate ever doing. Think ahead. Skimping now may bite you in the butt in a couple of years as the company grows or builds bigger (or smaller) vessels.

Don't forget training in your budget. Some of this software is not particularly intuitive. A couple days of training will often go a long way to becoming productive in a reasonable amount of time. In a commercial environment management doesn't get too excited about watching engineers sitting around for days reading software manuals while they try to teach themselves a program.

Good luck.